An image data input/output system is known which is connected to a network to process external or internal image data and output the processed image data.
An example of the image data input/output system is a device called an MFP (Multi Function Peripheral).
FIG. 29 shows a controller 100 which controls a conventional MFP (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-120639). In the controller 100, a CPU 102, memory controller (MC) 103, global bus 105, image processing unit 110, and image data rasterization unit (RIP (Raster Image Processor)) 113 are connected through a system bus bridge (SBB) 101.
A hard disk controller (HDD Cont) 106 which controls a mass storage unit (HDD (Hard Disk Drive)) 107 for storing image data and a network I/F 109 serving as an interface to transfer image data to an external device through a network 108 connected to the MFP are connected to the global bus 105. An example of the image data is image data with a page vector format (e.g., PDL (Page Description Language), PDF, or SVG).
The HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 107 is connected to the HDD Cont 106 and used as an image data storage medium. Similarly, a system memory (Memory) 104 is connected to the MC 103 and used as a medium to temporarily store image data. A DIMM is generally used as the system memory 104.
A scanner 111 and a printer 112 are connected to the image processing unit 110. Image data input from the scanner 111 is subjected to predetermined image processing by the image processing unit 110 and input to the controller 100. Image data stored in the controller 100 is subjected to predetermined image processing by the image processing unit 110 and output to the printer 112.
Image data handled by the controller 100 is input/output from/to an external device through the network by using a page vector format (e.g., PDL, PDF, or SVG) and input from the scanner 111 or output to the printer 112 by using a raster data format. Image data with a page vector format which is input from an external device is interpreted to a primitive object by the CPU 102, converted into intermediate data (DL data) called DL (Display List), and input to the RIP 113.
These image data are temporarily stored in the system memory 104 in the controller 100. Hence, a number of kinds of data such as raster data, page vector data (e.g., PDL), and DL data are present on the system memory 104.
The HDD 107 stores, as image data, image data input from the scanner 111 and raster image data rendered by the RIP 113.
Of the above-described image data handled by the MFP, raster image data has a large data size. The raster image data therefore consumes many system resources such as the memory size of the system memory 104 and the bandwidths of the global bus 105 and the path between the HDD Cont 106 and the HDD 107.
In addition, page vector data such as PDL data is subjected to interpretation in the system and rasterized to DL data to generate a rendering object. At this time, since the DL data is spooled on the system memory 104, the memory resource consumption is enormous.
Recently, user demands for the quality of output images are growing. As one of solutions, the resolution (quality) of image data is increased. In addition to the image quality, the processing speed of systems is also required to be high.
For these reasons, system resources necessary for satisfying the above-described various required specifications are bloated. Hence, the challenge is how to balance the cost performance of products.
In addition to the problem of the cost performance of products, a problem of manpower to develop diversified and sophisticated systems must also be solved. To solve this problem, the product lineup must efficiently be strengthened by forming one fundamental system in a scalable form to cope with various required specifications.
For example, there is needed a system that enables distributed processing by providing multiple modules such as the image processing unit 110 and RIP 113 in FIG. 29 in high-end models.
Along with the progress of paperless offices, a demand for seamlessly handling paper output products and electronic data also arises. For this purpose, even an MFP serving as an I/F device between paper and electronic data is required to have more intelligent functions of converting raster image data into objects, i.e., reusable object data and speeding up image processing to cope with POD (Print On Demand).